Monroe County To Celebrate 150th Birthday Tuesday

On Tuesday, Monroe County will officially celebrate its 150th birthday.

Three sesquicentennial offices will officially open, and a 12-by-12-foot county-shaped birthday cake with 150 candles will be served.

The celebration will begin at 5 p.m. with a caravan beginning in Brodheadsville to open the sesquicentennial office at the Western Pocono Community Library. The caravan, escorted by the Pennsylvania state police, will move to Stroudsburg, where an office will be opened in the East Stroudsburg Savings Association building. It then heads to Mount Pocono for an opening in the Pocono Municipal Building at 6:30 p.m.

The caravan will travel to Pocono Manor resort for the presentation of the birthday cake consisting of 150 8-by-8-inch cakes donated by the 20 municipalities.

Cutting of the cake is scheduled for 8 p.m., with county commissioners and municipal leaders joining residents in singing "Happy Birthday" to Monroe County.

At that time, all fire companies in the county will blow their whistles; radio stations are requested to play "Happy Birthday," and area churches will ring their bells.

Organizational meetings of Brother of the Brush and Ladies Belle groups will be held at 7:30 p.m. April 3 in the Pocono Central Ambulance building. Additional information is available by contacting Denny Deardorff at (717) 424-1131 or William Quinn, (717) 646-2846.

Monroe County Sesquicentennial Commemorative Stocks are available in limited quantities. Additional information is available by calling Frank Nicoletti at (717) 421-1412 during the day and (717)-424-1339 nights or Stanley Drahozal at (717) 421-9921.

An act of the General Assembly on April 1, 1836, approved by Governor James Ritner, provided thatparts of Northampton and Pike Counties become known as Monroe County, named for the fifth president of the United States.

By the same act, Moses Coolbaugh, Benjamin V. Bush, William Van Buskirk, Michael Shoemaker and Joseph Trach were appointed trustees for the new county. They were to receive written offers of donations toward defraying expenses of acquiring lands and public buildings for county uses.

Choice of a county seat was the next issue, and Stroudsburg was designated on July 26, 1836, by a margin of 70 votes in an election held for the second time to decide the issue.

In the first election, July 2, 1836, a three-way tie resulted among Stroudsburg; Kellersville, Hamilton Township, and Dutotsburg (now known as Delaware Water Gap).

The Stroudsburgs were called Dansbury after an early settler named Daniel Brodhead; with the infiltration of Col. Jacob Stroud's family, the settlement gradually became known as Stroud's town.

The settlement on the west side of the Brodheadsville Creek has been called Stroudsburg since 1806 and was incorporated as a borough in 1815. On the east side of the creek, the settlement was called East Stroudsburg and was designated as a borough by court order in 1870.

A focal point for the sesquicentennial is the old Stroud Mansion at the corner of 9th and Main Streets in Stroudsburg. This is one of several houses built by Col. Stroud for his sons.

Monroe County at the time of its inception consisted of nine townships: Ross, Pocono, Tobyhanna, Chestnuthill, Stroud and Smithfield, north of Blue Mountain in Northampton County, and Middle Smithfield, Price and Coolbaugh in Pike County.

According to local history compiled by Luke W. Brodhead of Delaware Water Gap, Nicholas De Puy was the first white settler in the limits of Monroe County.

The white settlers' desire for land and their hunting and fishing brought about uprisings by the Indians, who felt the settlers were infringing on their rights. To combat Indian warfare, forts were established, located to be accessible to surrounding residents in time of danger from Indian attacks. A good water supply was another factor in the location of a fort.

Early forts of the new county were Fort Hamilton, now the site of the Stroudsburg Lutheran Church; Fort Hyndshaw in the Bushkill area; Fort Depui in the Shawnee area; Fort Norris, about three miles southeast of the village of Kresgeville, and Fort Penn in Stroudsburg.

Teedyuscung, chief of the Delawares, set his people at war in the fall of 1755 after a council with braves and warriors of the Mohican and Shawnee tribes. He supposedly sided with the French when he felt settlers were unfairly taking his bountiful hunting grounds. However, in 1758 the chief was also instrumental in making general peace.

Teedyuscung was burned to death in his dwelling by Iroquois braves, who then placed the blame on settlers from Connecticut.